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What's best on floor in stairwell & hallways of multifamily?
My recently purchased 4 family has horrific carpeting in the hall & stairs serving the upper 3 units. I'm getting vacancies soon of the lowlife and section 8 in 2 of those units, but I'm still unsure about simply putting down more carpet to get ruined. I did it in another nearby building and it's still decent 7 years later but for one stain from a leaking garbage bag, but this neighborhood is lower down the gentrification ladder.
What other options are there, other than painting the floors & stairs? Laminate with nose molding doesn't seem a great solution, you've still got to end it before the balusters with yet another transition molding, and the cost of all those special moldings adds up fast. I saw one that would cost $30 per tread x 30 treads. I've got classic linoleum treads and risers with metal tread nosing and marble top treads with tiled hallways in another building, but that seems like a big project.
I have a local flooring contractor coming tomorrow to give me bids. When I asked about real linoleum he showed me an Armstrong commercial floor product called Corlon that looks great, a thick vinyl that looks like terrazzo. It's basically colored vinyl chunks set in clear vinyl, so there's no "skin" to tear like cheap vinyl flooring. It's $1.90/ft to genuine linoleum's $3.46/ft. http://www.floorcity.com/Armstrong-Connection-Corlon-Sheet-Vinyl-s/1892.htm
Any other great solutions?
Take a look at VCT. Cheap and durable.
Thanks, but I don't believe VCT is a good choice over a dubious substrate, nor on the stairs where the old wooden treads are flexing and the tile joints are taking beating. Over a good subfloor no doubt it wears like iron.
If there is no bottom rail... Spindles run directly into treads... I'd just carpet the stairs. Doesnt sound like youre looking to rebuild anything at this point. On commercial properties i dont recomend anything on stairs other than carpet, rubber, or select textured stones. Most everything else is too slippery and a liabilty. Using flooring that requires any kind of bulky nosings are dangerous as well. May as well just push your tenants down the stairs and get the lawsuits out of the way!!
I've had very good luck with Marine Carpet. A little more expensive than outdoor or commercial carpet but its been lasting a long time like 20+ years in a 3 unit.
Randy, I haven't had any slip problems in 15 years where I have aluminum nosing over linoleum, nor even with the marble top tread, which would seem like a liability. Most appealing, I've done almost no maintenance on the stairs/halls in those 15 years.
George, what makes the marine last, is it physically tougher or more stain resistant, or both?
The flooring vendor thinks the hallway floors need a 1/4 plywood underlay for the vinyl, which I think would be a disaster visually. He may be right for a glued down product. But if I was going to add 3/8 thickness I might as well put down laminate myself. That notion got me thinking about floating vinyl plank, which I've only installed once, in a kitchen. It would be thin, relatively cheap to buy and easy to install with 1/4 rounds, metal stair nosings and edge strips to end it short of the halway balusters. Plus it's easily reversible if it didn't work out, unlike vinyl glued down to ply nailed down with a zillion nails. I've only used the click type, but lot's of folks here seem to like the Allure PSA glue strip type, which is cheaper.
Thoughts? And can anybody tell me what the normal lifespan of carpet should be in this circumstance? 5 years? 10?
Not sure but the marine carpet did hold up for quite some time 20+ years.
Another thing you can do is Floor Paint and add non skid like Skid Tex. I've done this in another property. Holds up pretty good even to outside steps
The vendor came back with $2.2k for carpet and $4k for the vinyl. I think I'm going to get the Allure 12x36 planks and metal stair nosings and do it myself. I've laid thousands of feet of click laminate.
Johann Jells did you use the laminate w/ metal stair nosings? I have a property where the carpet is problematic and am looking for a solution for the stairs. It's going to be all vinyl or laminate... except I'm not sure about the stairs.
If you did, could you share pictures (assuming you have them)?
Sorry Chris, I've gotten the drywall, electrical & painting done in the stairs & halls, but had to put floors on hold while attend to my other business. It will be a challenge technically with the edges and transitions, but I still think Allure is best option.
@Chris Martin - Did you ever try Laminate w/metal nosings?
I have about 15 stairs from an attached garage to kitchen and I'm tired of replacing carpet due to pet smell!
Anyone had any luck?
Originally posted by @Drey S.:
@Chris Martin - Did you ever try Laminate w/metal nosings?
No, I've not tried that. Did you find a product specific for this purpose?
are there any insurance articles that recommend the best type of flooring for stairs to reduce slip and falls?
Originally posted by @Steve Smith:
are there any insurance articles that recommend the best type of flooring for stairs to reduce slip and falls?
No idea, but I can't see how you can go wrong with the aluminum nosing. FWIW, I'll update the 7 year old questions in this thread! I did my stairs and halls using 5mm click plank from Lumber Liquidators and the stair nosing. I ran the flooring from the stringer to an inch short of the balusters. Came out great, but I have some seam separations in the longest run. If you look around, this is not uncommon with vinyl click plank. I found the 5mm difficult to work with, and I've installed a LOT of laminate. I recently did a kitchen with an 8mm product from them, and it was much easier.